University Of Chicago Closed Today Due To Gun Violence Threat

University Following FBI’s Orders After Threat Called In Sunday
The University Of Chicago cancelled classes on Monday (Nov. 30) on its main campus because of an online threat of gun violence from an unknown person made reference to something happening at 10 a.m. on the campus quad. “It was pretty specific in terms of time and place,” university spokesman Jeremy Manier told the Associated Press. More than 30,000 faculty, students and non-essential staff were told to stay away from campus and students living in on-campus housing were warned to stay indoors. The FBI is investigating the case and the university said its decision was made after recent “tragic events” on other campuses. University president Robert J. Zimmer said the school will have an “increased police and security presence on and around campus, including police personnel with visible weapons and other additional measures.”

Planned Parenthood Shooter To Face JudgeRobert Lewis Dear, accused of Friday’s shooting spree at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic which killed three people will make his first court appearance on Monday. Dear, 57, is being held without bond and has not yet been charged in the case in which he is accused of engaging in a five-hour standoff with officers before surrendering and allegedly saying “no more baby parts” during his arrest, an apparent reference to a controversial series of anti-PP videos. Asked about the alleged “baby parts” comment, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz told a reporter that “it’s also been reported that he was registered as an independent and a woman and a transgendered leftist activist.” A number of lawmakers and Republican presidential candidates, as well as Colorado’s Democratic governor, have referred to the attack as “domestic terrorism.”

Global Leaders Kick Off Climate Talks
The leaders of more than 120 nations — including President Obama — will begin two weeks of major climate talks in Paris on Monday aimed at curbing global climate change. Given the increasingly dire state of the environment, organizers are asking all the countries involved to come up with voluntary limits on the emission of greenhouse gases. Scientists have warned that failure to find strong, sustainable solutions in Paris could lead to a cascade of major environmental crises, from increasingly warmer temperatures, rising sea levels, more widespread droughts and deadlier storms.

Quick Take: The first trial in the killing of 25-year-old Freddie Gray will kick off on Monday. Officer William Porter is one of six officers who were charged and will be tried separately in the Baltimore case. Porter is charged with involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault and misconduct in office; he has pleaded not guilty, as have all the other officers.

Quick Take 2: Welcome back to (some) privacy. As of Monday, the National Security Agency has stopped its controversial bulk collection of the metadata from Americans’ phone calls. The program began in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks when the government asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for permission to ask big phone companies to turn over information such as phone number and the duration of nearly all calls made by their customers, though not the content of those calls.

Daily Pic: President Obama, joined by French president Francois Hollande, paid his respects to the victims of the terror attacks in Paris on Monday by visiting the memorial outside the Bataclan theater.